A woman who managed to escape from the top floor of a burning tower block with her two children today broke down as she re-lived her terror.

Georgia Thomas managed to flee with her children and neighbour Norman Ebiowei from her flat on the 14th floor of Lakanal House, a Southwark council block in Camberwell, when a fire broke out on July 3, 2009.

She sobbed loudly as she told an inquest jury of her determination to continue her descent through "thick black smoke" to save her family's lives.

"It was hard to breathe," she told the hearing at Lambeth town hall.

James Maxwell-Scott, counsel to the inquest, asked her: "What kept you going?"

She replied: "I had to get my children out of there."

In a statement given shortly after the blaze, Mr Maxwell-Scott said she said the smoke was at its worst on the 9th and 11th floors.

"That was where it got really hard," Mrs Thomas said in her statement. I think the only thing that kept us going was adrenalin.

"I continued down. The smoke began to get clearer. I remember seeing other people on the stairwell. There was just panic everywhere."

The inquest is considering what caused the deaths of six residents of Lakanal House. It is due to continue until the end of March.

Mr Ebiowei, who also lived on the 14th floor, fled with his wife and two young children and ran back upstairs into the smoke to help Mrs Thomas.

"It was like fighting for one's life," he told the inquest, shortly before also breaking down in floods of tears.

"I noticed it was difficult breathing, but there was only one thing on my mind. We all had to get out of here."